25 of the Deadliest Explosions Man's Ever Made

Everybody likes to watch explosions. Come on, admit it: You like looking at enormous blasts on You Tube because they simultaneously thrill you and yet make you feel safer and more cautious in your tiny little life. OK, maybe I am projecting a little. But who cares. Whether they're the result of war, science, freak accidents, or rocket failures, destruction is in our blood. The fireball is our final heartbeat, the blastwave is our last breath. I hope you love the following selection of devastating detonations as much as I do.

The Halifax explosion, December 6, 1917

The town of Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) was destroyed by the explosion of a cargo ship loaded with military explosives. About two thousand people were killed and almost ten thousands were injured. Until the first nuclear blast, it was the largest man-made explosion in recorded history with an equivalent force of 2.9 kilotons of TNT.

This photo, taken at almost the split second that the Hindenburg exploded, shows the 804-foot German zeppelin—loaded with flammable hydrogen gas—just before the second and third explosions send the ship crashing to the earth over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, N.J.Photo: AP

The fate of USS Shaw, December 7, 1941

The forward magazine of USS Shaw (DD-373) explodes during the second Japanese attack wave in Pearl Harbor.Photo: NHHC

The Trinity explosion, July 16, 1945

At 5:29 AM the world's first atomic bomb—with a yield of around 20 kt—exploded over the southern New Mexico desert. The destroyer of worlds was born.Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Texas City Disaster, April 16, 1947

Refineries and oil storage tanks of the Monsanto chemical plant burn in the waterfront area of Texas City, TX. The disaster was caused by the explosion of the French ship Grandcamp, which was loaded with 7,700 tons of ammonium nitrate. About 2.7 kilotons of energy—the equivalent of 1.134 kilotons of TNT— was released. 581 died, and more than 5,000 were injured.Photo: AP

Heligoland, April 18, 1947

British engineers attempted to destroy the entire North Sea island of Heligoland (home of a Nazi naval fortification) with the help of 4000 tons of wartime ammunition. The blast—the largest single non-nuclear explosive detonation until Minor Scale (see below)—released about 3.2 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy.Source: YouTube/LordGeorgeRodney

Taking place shortly after the Sputnik debacle, the Vanguard TV3 was the US's first attempt to place a satellite in Earth orbit. A malfunction in first stage caused the launch vehicle to lose thrust after two seconds, and a vehicle fully loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene was destroyed.Source: YouTube/CRGIS Interns

Ripple Rock, April 5, 1958

Ripple Rock was an underwater, twin-peaked mountain, hazardous to ships passing through the Seymour Narrows of the Discovery Passage in British Columbia, Canada. It was destroyed with the help of 1,270 metric tons of Nitramex 2H explosives.Source: YouTube/John Hutchison

Failed Titan I launch, December 12, 1959

Cape Canaveral, Launch Complex 16. The TITAN Ballistic Missile Program went terribly wrong on this day because of the failure of the Titan I C-3 rocket loaded with about 100 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene.Source: YouTube/Mr Dan Beaumont

The Nedelin catastrophe, October 24 1960

The deadliest launch pad accident in history. About one hundred people died at Baikonur test range, when the second stage ignited prematurely during the test of the Soviet ICBM R-16 rocket.Source: YouTube/Roscosmos

A series of tests was performed by the United States Navy, using a 500-short-ton (450 t) mass of high explosives (i.e. TNT) to simulate the shock effects of nuclear blasts on naval vessels, on the island of Kahoʻolawe, Hawaii.Photo: U.S. Navy/NHHC

N1 launch explosion, 3 July 1969

One of the four N1 rockets that the Soviets intended to send to the moon exploded on the launch pad. The blast of the 1,496,000 lbs (678,574 kg) of liquid oxygen and kerosene released around 29 TJ energy, comparable to the Hiroshima blast. This was the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.Source: YouTube/Roscosmos TV

One of the deadliest industrial disasters in history was caused by a series of explosions at the Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) liquid petroleum gas (LPG) depot in San Juanico, Mexico. The explosions destroyed the entire facility, which held 11,000 m3 of liquified propane and butane gas. It devastated the town. More than five hundred people died, and thousands suffered severe burns.

The United States Defense Nuclear Agency conducted a test to simulate the blast of a nuclear weapons by detonating 4.8 kilotons of ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This was the largest planned, non-nuclear explosion in history.Photo: globalsecurity.org/nuclearfiles.org

The PEPCON disaster, May 4, 1988

Nearly nine million pounds of rocket fuel—mostly ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer used in the solid fuel rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle System (STS)—exploded at the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada in the US, and released the equivalent energy of about 2.7 Kilotons of TNT. The disaster—two large and five lesser explosions—claimed two lives, injured 372 people, and caused an estimated £65 million in damage.Source: YouTube/DiscoveryNetworks

MOAB test, 2003

The 22,600-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB, nicknamed "Mother of All Bombs") is a large-yield thermobaric bomb: the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed for the US.Source: YouTube/MilitaryChannel

Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal Fire, December 11, 2005

That Sunday morning there was a series of major explosions at one of the biggest oil depots in the UK—270,000,000 L capacity—in Buncefield, England. The explosions were heard over 100 miles away, as far as the Netherlands and France. Astonishingly, there was not a single fatality.Photo: Hertfordshire Police/Getty Images

Sea Launch Rocket Failure, January 30, 2007

The unmanned Zenit 3SL rocket—loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene—was supposed to carry a satellite into orbit from the Sea Launch platform Ocean Odyssey. Needless to say, that didn't happen.Source: YouTube/Tolbert1906

FOAB test, September 11, 2007

The Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP), nicknamed the "Father of All Bombs" (FOAB), is a Russian non-nuclear weapon, allegedly four times more powerful than the U.S. military's MOAB and plainly evaporates every living creatures in its blast range.Source: YouTube/HHHuSSStleRRR

The last BLU-82, July 15, 2008

With these 15,000 pound (6,800 kg) conventional bombs, the USAF was able to convert any hostile terrain into a clean and friendly helicopter landing zone (for example in Vietnam or Afghanistan). The BLU-82 weapon system was retired in 2008 and replaced with the more powerful MOAB. The last bomb was detonated at the Utah Test and Training Range.Photo: Capt. Patrick Nichols/U.S. Air Force

Cataño oil refinery fire, 23 October 2009

There was a major gasoline tank explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum Corporation oil refinery and oil depot in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The blast was seen and heard from 50 miles away and left a smoke plume as high as 30,000 feet. The detonation caused a magnitude 3.0 earthquake and blew glass around the city.Photo: CSB